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EPARulemakingEPA-HQ-OLEM-2017-0286

Hazardous and Solid Waste Management System: Disposal of Coal Combustion Residues From Electric Utilities; Remand Rule

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National Rural Electric Cooperative Association filings
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National Rural Electric Cooperative Association filed 2 comments on this docket between Apr 27, 2018 and May 3, 2018. 43 other organizations filed here. The comment window closed 3011d ago.

What National Rural Electric Cooperative Association filed (2)

May 3, 2018· Comment submitted by Dorothy Allen Kellogg, Senior Principal – Environmental Policy, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)· EPA-HQ-OLEM-2017-0286-1701

NRECA endorses the risk-based criteria proposed for inclusion in the proposed CCR Remand Rule, which are based in large measure on the existing and successful RCRA criteria for managing municipal solid waste landfills. We agree with EPA that provisions in the WIIN Act give the agency the authority and flexibility it previously lacked to establish and enforce site-specific, risk-based management of CCR. The WIIN Act, signed by President Obama in 2016, amended RCRA to remove barriers to a site-specific, risk-based CCR program: It authorized the implementation of the rule through state or federal CCR permit programs; it directed EPA to establish a federal permitting program in states that did not adopt a state program; and it provided EPA with direct oversight and enforcement authority as an alternative to enforcement through civil suits. In this proposal, EPA is moving to realize congressional intent and the agencys own preference for managing CCR by proposing to adopt a risk-based CCR management program. However, none of these reforms will mean anything if cooperatives subject to the current CCR rule are not given sufficient time to implement them. We ask that EPA take the following immediate steps (rather than waiting until the rule is finalized): Extend existing compliance deadlines under the 2015 CCR rule for groundwater monitor reporting and location restrictions, so that cooperative and other coal-fired generation can actually benefit from the proposed changes made to the rule. The deadlines should be extended for at least 120 days beyond the effective date of a final CCR remand rule. Correct the preambles erroneous characterization of the existing alternative closure provision with respect to non-CCR waste streams to make clear that ash ponds that qualify for alternative closure based on the lack of disposal capacity for CCR can continue to manage both CCR and non-CCR waste streams. We further urge the agency to, among other things: Adopt site-specific, risk-based alternative performance standards for the location of CCR management units and for protecting and remediating groundwater. Incorporate those site-specific, risk-based alternative performance standards into the existing, self-implementing CCR rule as well as any subsequent federal and state permitting programs.

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Apr 27, 2018· Comment submitted by Dorothy Kellogg, Senior Principal, Environmental Policy, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)· EPA-HQ-OLEM-2017-0286-0555

NRECA supports many elements in EPAs proposal; none these reforms will mean anything if cooperatives subject to the existing CCR rule dont have time or ability to implement them. 1.EPA needs to extend the existing compliance schedule so that cooperatives can actually benefit from the proposed rule changes. My members are confronting immediate, significant, and irrevocable decisions to commit resources to comply with a rule that will likely be changed to reflect Congressional intent as expressed through the WIIN Act. Extending these deadlines immediately will give EPA the time needed to finalize substantive changes to the CCR rule. 2.EPA needs to incorporate site-specific, risk-based criteria into the self-implementing program as well as any subsequent federal and state permitting programs. It will do my members little good for EPA to create a sound, risk-based program for CCR management if it is only available through a non-existent permitting regime. The WIIN Act gave EPA the enforcement authority to assure that reliance on risk-based elements of a self-implementing program can be monitored and not abused.

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Abstract

The EPA is publishing a proposed rule addressing specific technical issues on which the Agency agreed to a remand as a result of litigation of the final Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) Disposal Rule, published April 17, 2015. Issues covered by this proposal will include, but are not limited to, the height limitation of the vegetative slopes of dikes; the type and magnitude of non-groundwater releases that would require a facility to comply with some or all of the corrective action procedures set forth in the final CCR rule; and adding boron to the list of contaminants in Appendix IV of the final CCR rule that trigger the corrective action requirements under the final rule.

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Co-filers (43)

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